June 7, 2022 • 10 mins
On this day in 1968, the first theme park dedicated to LEGO bricks opened in the company’s hometown of Billund, Denmark.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show for those who can never know enough about history.
I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're looking at the story
of how one of the most popular toy brands in
(00:21):
the world wound up opening a theme park in its
own backyard. The day was June seven. The first theme
park dedicated to Lego Bricks opened in the company's hometown
(00:43):
of bill and to Denmark. The park, dubbed Lego Land,
was small at first, with just one restaurant and a
handful of attractions. The main draw was a section of
the park known as Mini Land, which feature detailed city
scenes and dioramas of real world locations, all modeled in
Lego bricks. About three thousand guests visited the park on
(01:08):
opening day, and by the end of its first year,
attendance had soared to six hundred and twenty five thousand,
twice the amount projected by the company. Today, there are
ten Lego Land parks spread all across the world, attracting
a total of more than fifteen million guests each year.
The original Lego Land park likely wouldn't exist if not
(01:31):
for the work of one woman, Dagney Holme. She was
the niece of Lego founder Ole Kirk Christiansen and the
cousin of his son Godfried, the head of the company
at the time. Dagney first joined the company as an
intern in nineteen thirty six, when she was just nineteen
years old. At the time, Lego made wooden toys and
(01:54):
Wooden patent its famous plastic brick for another two decades.
After her three month internship in the nineteen thirties, Dagney
moved to Copenhagen, where she went to school for classical
sculpture design. Twenty five years later, following the death of
her husband, Dagney returned home to Billend and rejoined the
(02:14):
Lego group as a model builder. A lot had changed
since she last worked for the family business. The interlocking
system of bricks that had been introduced in nineteen fifty
eight was now the company's premiere product. At first, Dagney
had trouble adjusting to the new medium of rigid plastic bricks.
She found it more restrictive and less intuitive than working
(02:37):
with wood or clay, but eventually her skill, talent, and
i for design one out. Dagney began building eye catching
Lego models of everything from modern buildings to medieval castles,
from realistic animals to fantasy creatures. Over the next few years,
the growing popularity of Lego products prompted the company to
(02:59):
open the doors of its factory to the public. Children, retailers,
and model builders of all ages began making the pilgrimage
to the small town of Billund in order to tour
the Lego factory. The highlight of the tour was an
exhibition of large scale Lego models, most of which had
been built by Dagney Holme. By the mid nineteen sixties,
(03:22):
the company was entertaining more than twenty thousand visitors each year,
and with interest only growing, Godfrey Kirk Christiansen started looking
for a way to relieve the pressure on the factory tour.
What they needed was a place to display their Lego
models out in the open, separate from the factory itself.
(03:42):
The initial plans for Lego Land took shape in nineteen
sixty three, and since the mini Land models were to
be the focal point of the park, Dagney Home was
put in charge of the creative design work. She set
up shop in a section of the company's old woodworking
factory and began to create oversized models of urban settings
(04:03):
and popular landmarks. Meanwhile, window display designer Arnold boot Trop
was brought on board to help craft the landscape of
the fourteen acre park. Since Billand is largely flat terrain,
boot Trop trucked in thousands of loads of dirt and
turf to ensure that many land had rolling hills, mountains,
(04:24):
and other visually interesting landscapes that would complement Dagney's brick
built models. In the end, Dagney Home and her team
used more than twenty million lego bricks to construct the
mini land models. Using innovative building techniques, they produced incredibly detailed,
scaled down versions of famous landmarks throughout Denmark and the
(04:47):
rest of the world. Some of the countries represented included Sweden, Scotland, Germany, Japan,
the United States, and the Netherlands. To be clear, the
models weren't built at usual mini figure scale that most
retail sets adhere to today that would have made the
models much smaller and less impressive in an outdoor setting. Instead,
(05:11):
Dagney devised her own mini land scale with a much
larger brick built characters and buildings up to five feet
tall or even larger. It wasn't an entirely static display either.
Lego cars and trains powered by electricity wove their way
through the intricate scenes, and Lego boats in the mini
harbor appeared to move on their own thanks to a
(05:34):
clever underwater pulley system. As if she wasn't busy enough,
Dagney Home was also approached in nineteen sixty seven to
design a human scale Lego train for guests to ride
at the famous Tivoli Gardens and Copenhagen. She happily obliged,
but the train only carried guests on a tour of
(05:54):
the gardens for about a year. In nine sixty eight,
when it was time for Lego's own park to open,
Dagney's train was moved over to Billent and One, just
like it continues to operate there today. In addition to
her Lego train, the original park also boasted a puppet theater,
a bike and go cart driving school aimed at teaching
(06:15):
kids proper road safety, and of course, thousands and thousands
of Lego bricks for children and adults alike to play with.
It was a somewhat modest group of attractions but it
was more than enough to capture the interest of the
public and the press. For example, here's an excerpt from
a British path A news report on the construction and
(06:36):
opening of the very first Lego Land. Every building here
is being made from tiny plastic bricks, bricks that children
themselves use for their own miniature playtime constructions. Millions of
millions of bricks are being slutted together to build up
this colorful dream world. The little plastic world is finished
and open to the public. They call it Lego Land.
(07:00):
Operating a theme park was unknown territory for the Lego group,
and the opening day crowd proved to be a bit overwhelming.
In fact, Eric tap Drop, the head of one of
the company's design departments, was actually called to the restaurant
kitchen that day to help wash dishes. When he arrived,
he rolled up his sleeves and took his place at
(07:21):
the sink, right beside Helga Torp, the Lego marketing director.
So yeah, you know a company's had a busy day
when two executives are put on dishwashing duty. The success
of opening Day continued in the years to come, with
the park eventually expanding to include nine additional themed areas
spread across forty five acres. These lands, including Pirate Land,
(07:46):
Lego City, Knights Kingdom, and the Lego Movie World, are
populated by a host of flat rides, water rides, and
roller coasters. The Bill and Park remained the only Lego
Land until nineteen six, when the first international park opened
in Windsor, England. From there, it was joined by three
parks in the United States, as well as ones in Malaysia, Dubai, Japan, Korea,
(08:10):
and Germany. After falling on hard times in the ninety
nineties and early two thousands, the Lego Group actually sold
all of its theme parks to an entertainment management group
called Merlin in two thousand five. Although Lego no longer
owns the parks, it continues to work in close partnership
to make sure they still reflect the quality and values
(08:31):
of the brand. One way of ensuring that has been
to model all the newly built Lego Land theme parks
after the original one in billing. The biggest similarity the
parks share is that every Lego Land has its own
sprawling mini land area. This shared feature is one of
the things that sets Lego Land apart from other modern
(08:52):
theme parks. Instead of strapping in for a thrill ride,
guests are encouraged to tour a highly manicured landscape while
miring the imagination and craftsmanship of the detailed models. In
this way, many land serves as a kind of throwback
to the European pleasure gardens from which amusement parks and
theme parks were born. They were places to relax outdoors
(09:15):
and see examples of architecture from different places that you
might never get a chance to visit in person. That
sense of discovery and endless possibility is a big reason
why Lego products have been embraced around the world. Even
if you never make it to a Lego land park yourself,
you can always grab a pile of Lego bricks and
build your own. I'm Gay Bluesier and hopefully you now
(09:45):
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you'd like to keep up with the show, you
can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t
D I HC Show, and if you have any comments
or suggestions, you can always send him my way at
this Day at I Heart media dot com. Special thanks
(10:06):
to guest producers Joey Patt and Casey Pegrum and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another day in history class.
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show for those who can never know enough about history.
I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're looking at the story
of how one of the most popular toy brands in
(00:21):
the world wound up opening a theme park in its
own backyard. The day was June seven. The first theme
park dedicated to Lego Bricks opened in the company's hometown
(00:43):
of bill and to Denmark. The park, dubbed Lego Land,
was small at first, with just one restaurant and a
handful of attractions. The main draw was a section of
the park known as Mini Land, which feature detailed city
scenes and dioramas of real world locations, all modeled in
Lego bricks. About three thousand guests visited the park on
(01:08):
opening day, and by the end of its first year,
attendance had soared to six hundred and twenty five thousand,
twice the amount projected by the company. Today, there are
ten Lego Land parks spread all across the world, attracting
a total of more than fifteen million guests each year.
The original Lego Land park likely wouldn't exist if not
(01:31):
for the work of one woman, Dagney Holme. She was
the niece of Lego founder Ole Kirk Christiansen and the
cousin of his son Godfried, the head of the company
at the time. Dagney first joined the company as an
intern in nineteen thirty six, when she was just nineteen
years old. At the time, Lego made wooden toys and
(01:54):
Wooden patent its famous plastic brick for another two decades.
After her three month internship in the nineteen thirties, Dagney
moved to Copenhagen, where she went to school for classical
sculpture design. Twenty five years later, following the death of
her husband, Dagney returned home to Billend and rejoined the
(02:14):
Lego group as a model builder. A lot had changed
since she last worked for the family business. The interlocking
system of bricks that had been introduced in nineteen fifty
eight was now the company's premiere product. At first, Dagney
had trouble adjusting to the new medium of rigid plastic bricks.
She found it more restrictive and less intuitive than working
(02:37):
with wood or clay, but eventually her skill, talent, and
i for design one out. Dagney began building eye catching
Lego models of everything from modern buildings to medieval castles,
from realistic animals to fantasy creatures. Over the next few years,
the growing popularity of Lego products prompted the company to
(02:59):
open the doors of its factory to the public. Children, retailers,
and model builders of all ages began making the pilgrimage
to the small town of Billund in order to tour
the Lego factory. The highlight of the tour was an
exhibition of large scale Lego models, most of which had
been built by Dagney Holme. By the mid nineteen sixties,
(03:22):
the company was entertaining more than twenty thousand visitors each year,
and with interest only growing, Godfrey Kirk Christiansen started looking
for a way to relieve the pressure on the factory tour.
What they needed was a place to display their Lego
models out in the open, separate from the factory itself.
(03:42):
The initial plans for Lego Land took shape in nineteen
sixty three, and since the mini Land models were to
be the focal point of the park, Dagney Home was
put in charge of the creative design work. She set
up shop in a section of the company's old woodworking
factory and began to create oversized models of urban settings
(04:03):
and popular landmarks. Meanwhile, window display designer Arnold boot Trop
was brought on board to help craft the landscape of
the fourteen acre park. Since Billand is largely flat terrain,
boot Trop trucked in thousands of loads of dirt and
turf to ensure that many land had rolling hills, mountains,
(04:24):
and other visually interesting landscapes that would complement Dagney's brick
built models. In the end, Dagney Home and her team
used more than twenty million lego bricks to construct the
mini land models. Using innovative building techniques, they produced incredibly detailed,
scaled down versions of famous landmarks throughout Denmark and the
(04:47):
rest of the world. Some of the countries represented included Sweden, Scotland, Germany, Japan,
the United States, and the Netherlands. To be clear, the
models weren't built at usual mini figure scale that most
retail sets adhere to today that would have made the
models much smaller and less impressive in an outdoor setting. Instead,
(05:11):
Dagney devised her own mini land scale with a much
larger brick built characters and buildings up to five feet
tall or even larger. It wasn't an entirely static display either.
Lego cars and trains powered by electricity wove their way
through the intricate scenes, and Lego boats in the mini
harbor appeared to move on their own thanks to a
(05:34):
clever underwater pulley system. As if she wasn't busy enough,
Dagney Home was also approached in nineteen sixty seven to
design a human scale Lego train for guests to ride
at the famous Tivoli Gardens and Copenhagen. She happily obliged,
but the train only carried guests on a tour of
(05:54):
the gardens for about a year. In nine sixty eight,
when it was time for Lego's own park to open,
Dagney's train was moved over to Billent and One, just
like it continues to operate there today. In addition to
her Lego train, the original park also boasted a puppet theater,
a bike and go cart driving school aimed at teaching
(06:15):
kids proper road safety, and of course, thousands and thousands
of Lego bricks for children and adults alike to play with.
It was a somewhat modest group of attractions but it
was more than enough to capture the interest of the
public and the press. For example, here's an excerpt from
a British path A news report on the construction and
(06:36):
opening of the very first Lego Land. Every building here
is being made from tiny plastic bricks, bricks that children
themselves use for their own miniature playtime constructions. Millions of
millions of bricks are being slutted together to build up
this colorful dream world. The little plastic world is finished
and open to the public. They call it Lego Land.
(07:00):
Operating a theme park was unknown territory for the Lego group,
and the opening day crowd proved to be a bit overwhelming.
In fact, Eric tap Drop, the head of one of
the company's design departments, was actually called to the restaurant
kitchen that day to help wash dishes. When he arrived,
he rolled up his sleeves and took his place at
(07:21):
the sink, right beside Helga Torp, the Lego marketing director.
So yeah, you know a company's had a busy day
when two executives are put on dishwashing duty. The success
of opening Day continued in the years to come, with
the park eventually expanding to include nine additional themed areas
spread across forty five acres. These lands, including Pirate Land,
(07:46):
Lego City, Knights Kingdom, and the Lego Movie World, are
populated by a host of flat rides, water rides, and
roller coasters. The Bill and Park remained the only Lego
Land until nineteen six, when the first international park opened
in Windsor, England. From there, it was joined by three
parks in the United States, as well as ones in Malaysia, Dubai, Japan, Korea,
(08:10):
and Germany. After falling on hard times in the ninety
nineties and early two thousands, the Lego Group actually sold
all of its theme parks to an entertainment management group
called Merlin in two thousand five. Although Lego no longer
owns the parks, it continues to work in close partnership
to make sure they still reflect the quality and values
(08:31):
of the brand. One way of ensuring that has been
to model all the newly built Lego Land theme parks
after the original one in billing. The biggest similarity the
parks share is that every Lego Land has its own
sprawling mini land area. This shared feature is one of
the things that sets Lego Land apart from other modern
(08:52):
theme parks. Instead of strapping in for a thrill ride,
guests are encouraged to tour a highly manicured landscape while
miring the imagination and craftsmanship of the detailed models. In
this way, many land serves as a kind of throwback
to the European pleasure gardens from which amusement parks and
theme parks were born. They were places to relax outdoors
(09:15):
and see examples of architecture from different places that you
might never get a chance to visit in person. That
sense of discovery and endless possibility is a big reason
why Lego products have been embraced around the world. Even
if you never make it to a Lego land park yourself,
you can always grab a pile of Lego bricks and
build your own. I'm Gay Bluesier and hopefully you now
(09:45):
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you'd like to keep up with the show, you
can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t
D I HC Show, and if you have any comments
or suggestions, you can always send him my way at
this Day at I Heart media dot com. Special thanks
(10:06):
to guest producers Joey Patt and Casey Pegrum and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another day in history class.
This Day in History Class News
Host
Gabe Luzier
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